A (Really) Dark Horse Candidate
by BrokenMimir
Summary: (Buffy/Nightbane) The Scoobies watch the coverage of the first election post Dark Day. Why did no one vote the the lesser evil?


**Disclaimer**

I don't own anything. Buffy and Nightbane are not owned by me. It is owned by rich, talented people. I'm a nobody. Please don't sue me.

**A (Really) Dark Horse Candidate**

"As returns continue coming in, it looks as though Preserver candidate Douglas Carson is heading for a comfortable win over the mainstream candidates," the news anchor said, as a board showing red, white and blue states slowly filled in as the election unfolded.

"A significant number of congressional seats are also going to members of this third party, enough to give them the largest share of the House, although they will only hold a small percentage of the Senate. Political Analysts are concerned that congress may become irreconcilably deadlocked in the face of a three party system."

"Not likely," Giles snorted, taking another drink of scotch. The entire gang were gathered around his television, identical looks of apprehension on their faces as they watched the news.

"What do you mean, G-Man?" Xander asked, his manner light but his eyes were concerned.

"Must you insist on calling me by that infernal nickname?" Giles asked, resigned. Everyone smiled slightly at the familiar response, before growing serious once more. "The Perserver Party will have no trouble acquiring control of your system. As they will simply take it."

"Take it?" Buffy asked.

"Bribery, coercion, replacing the opposition... there seems to be little that is beyond them," he answered, his voice tired.

Riley nodded seriously. "I heard from some of my old squad earlier today. They've all gone to ground, but some of them tried to do something. They went after Carson."

"I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess this is a story that has the kind of happy ending that isn't," Xander said.

"That's right," Riley agreed, nodding seriously. "They were found dead in a hotel room a few days ago... it was bad."

"Everything is going bad," Anya said. "Why did I have to become human now? What good is money if the country falls apart? Why did we have to lose the gold standard!? Xander, you had better give me many good orgasms after this so that we can forget everything that is happening."

"An..." he muttered embarrassed.

"What?" she countered, annoyed. "Having orgasms to forget life or death danger is a common human response. During the French Revolution-"

"Anyway," Willow broke in suddenly. "Giles, isn't there something that we can do? I mean, this is bad, right? Shouldn't we be doing something about this? I mean, you said this guy isn't human. So isn't it our job to stop him, because if he isn't human, and he's evil, then we should slay, not let him get elected! Because a demon president is bad!"

"Breath, Wills," Buffy said, smiling at her friend who flushed in embarrassment. "But seriously, Giles, we have to do something!"

He sighed, looking years older. "There is nothing that we can do, at this time, I'm afraid. Remember what happened to the Council team?"

Months ago, while a team of black ops from the Watcher's Council had been hunting Faith, the skies had gone mysteriously dark for twenty-four hours. Riots had broken out worldwide, and reports of monsters came from all parts of the planet. It had seemed as though the world had been ending, but no one, not even the Watcher's Council, had been able to figure out what had been happening, other than that it was mystical.

The Council had not had much time to work, however. They had called a full emergency session to figure out a response to the crisis, but none of them survived. Giles had heard from his contacts that they had all been horribly killed, and the Council offices had burned to the ground under the cover of the riots. Similar strikes had happened to prominent supernatural and military organizations all over the world during that period of darkness.

Since then, things had slid steadily downhill. More and more monsters were appearing all over the country, and a new political party, the Preserver Party, had sprung up overnight in America. Anyone who opposed them had a nasty habit of disappearing. Eventually the Council Black Ops team, having been in America when Dark Day, as it was called, happened, had made a move against the leader of the Preserver Party, Douglas Carson. They had never been seen again.

"I'm the Slayer," Buffy said, her voice hard. "There has to be something we can do."

He shook his head tiredly. "All we can do for now is wait and learn what we can. Whatever this is, its not simply... coming here to cause havoc. It has already caused havoc, and now it is, um, taking over. There isn't much we can do without more information."

Buffy watched the screen, as it changed to Carson giving his acceptance speech, despite the earliness of the hour. "That's not good enough. Not anymore. We need to learn more, Giles. If they took out the Council, then they know about us. Sitting around? That's sitting duck stuff."

"The Buffsters right," Xander said. "Why haven't they come after us? I mean, if I were taking over the world, I'd go after the Slayer."

"Actually, I think its because they would rather leave us here, in place," Giles replied. "The Slayer may be the greatest champion against the darkness, but without the Council, she is only one person. Why waste resources killing her, when she is simply staying here, out of the way? And if we weren't here, they would probably have to send a team to keep any other demons from ending the world before they take possession of it."

Buffy stood and faced her friends. "Then its time to stop being so re- and start being pro- active. I'm gonna call Angel, see what he knows. Willow? Can you do the computer thing, try to find some computery types that could help? Riley, can you get ahold of the rest of the Initiative? If they're in hiding, then we should find as many people as we can, put a group together of people in the know. You do the same thing Giles, but with, you know, tweedy types."

Where before everyone had simply sat and despaired as evil took over the country, and indeed, was making similar moves all around the world, now they sat straighter, ready to face the challenge.

"This is bigger than anything we've ever faced," Buffy said. "But we've dealt with evil politician's before. Just because this time its too much for just us, doesn't mean we fold. We've done so much, 'cause we worked together. Well, now it's time for us to make a bigger together. And we'll win this time too."

Whatever was responsible may have won the first battle, but that just meant it was time to rally the troops for the war.

**Author's Notes**

This is a cross with the Nightbane setting I've created for Election Day. I might come back and do a real piece about Nightbane sometime (it has fantastic cross potential with Buffy), but that's it for now. The moral of the fic: you should always vote! Even if you don't like either candidate, at least they aren't doppelgangers being controlled by godlike dimensional invaders seeking to conquer our world.


End file.
